Conceptualizing
an urban intervention in an aged area like Mar Mikhael does not signify a reinterpretation
of past shadows. One could easily fall into the trap of recreating what was
once there, neglecting what the area now starves for. The main design approach should be sensitive to certain elements
of the site such as parameters on the micro and macro scales; a program that
reflects the needs of Mar Mikhael which are elsewhere available within Beirut.
Mar Mikhael became the receptor of young artisans who have a lot to give.

3 main elements: cars / souk / commercial uses

From this perspective, we are
designing as to point out the dynamism of an area full of memories. From kids
laying down stones on an empty lot to make their own football court to
activists settling down creating a base to send out their message, the area is
interactive on many levels, this is why we decided to create an "Urban
Stage". Here you are always seeing and being seen, the ambiance is
amiable, generations merge together creating harmony within the beat of the
city.

Someone once said "you can't
learn music from Books, it's out there". Extending the flow of people into
the site is eliminating boundaries on various directions. The need to open up
to the port and break the monotonous agglomeration of Mar Mikhael's city fabric
seemed almost inescapable.

Through
the intertwining of circulatory pathways, both pedestrian

and vehicular flows start blending
and revive the urban fabric related to the city of Beirut; instead of only
being concerned with the ephemeral

Throughout Mar Mikhael, the street, the
buildings, the balconies, the dead spaces, create a certain rhythm, that is
carried through the site designated. Against factors of history, time, and
change, this rhythm is altered by the story of the ghost, by which every
building that exists ends at some point; the ghost is the memory of an
existence, it is the impact that a building leaves on its neighboring building,
it is because of the shared spaces in Mar Mikhael. This mark on the new
building is the coexistence of the new and the old, a reminder of the
ephemeral.

A souk naturally forms itself on the pins
and boards against a big inclined wall, when this is done with, the people of
the souk leave their hangers and pieces of clothes and products on the wall;
consequently this prepares the ambiance for the fashion runway that takes place
on a path along the side. A pool of water forms near one of the entrances and
provides a soothing place for the passers by and the dance school, and when
this water is taken out or evaporated, the plaza it leaves becomes a
performance area.

qualitative physical models

"the ghost" : the existing transformations of the surrounding buildings / neighborhood

A street leads to a ramp that gives a
progressive look at the design workshop happening underground, and then takes
the user to the souk , where the work is exhibited and to the public plazas.The functions are based on the memory of
the previous function.

The
Pa-Ra-Site is
treating genetic anomalies or after birth mutations and amputations not as
"flaws" or taboos, but as a chance for redesign /
optimization through artificial members and prosthetic procedures.

Since Le Corbusier and the modular system was used as a main type for modernist
building, where structure, skin and circulation are three independent units
placed together to create the building.

In this
studio my project was mostly an investigation based on theoretical readings
(Hive minds; Parasite; fold, bodies, and blobs …)as an approach to a an
architecture where skin, structure, and circulation start to intertwine between
each other’s and to work within one system where one can never exists without
the others, a Body.

Based on
aggregation, deformation, stimulation and accumulation of one unit [1]
(genetics similarities as Greg Lynn cited in his book), a system of
accumulation generate the texture through the assembly of this unit.

1
- This unit is generated based on combining circulation, skin and structure
within the context. (Circulation Core of Bernard Khoury’s building in Mar
Mikael)

Turning a blind eye to the needs and wants
of the people that actually live there, Mar Mikhael has gone through great
changes over the past few years and these changes in turn affected its
demographics profoundly, turning it into another cold-hearted city we do not need. That is exactly what we wanted to
avoid. Our intervention focuses mainly on the people living in Mar Mikhael, and
on the people visiting it. What do the residents really need? What do the
visitors really enjoy? What will our proposal really give back to Mar Mikhael?
We proposed several programs, one that was strictly connected to the great
difference in percentage in the demographics. By introducing low rent housing,
we will ensure that the young will stay in Mar Mikhael close by to their parents.

qualitative diagrams: the existing theatricality within the city grid

The second is related to Cinema Vendome, one of the landmarks of Beirut that
was torn to the ground due to political and personal “Profit” gain. Including
an amphitheatre, cinema, and a theatre in an effort to create what was a great
loss to the Lebanese people. And of course others programs such as daycare,
dance school, co-working, bars and restaurants that could benefit both the
residents and visitors during the day and night. Moreover, during our visit to
the site, we realized that there were a lot of abandoned lots, a result of the
edges of the surrounding buildings and even topography.

qualitative generic diagrams

design process diagrams

People took it into their
own hands and made those spaces their own “Public Garden” or even “Play Area”. We targeted those specific areas and came to a
conclusion: my partner and I (intruders) became part of that area as if we
belonged to that neighborhood. Walls that were once considered as a separation
between interior and exterior or between public and private have become
transparent to us. Theatricality overtook those areas, where the audience
became spectators and spectators became the audience.That kind of interaction
and communication has to prevail in our project specifically because we are
proposing diverse programs for everyone.

Instructor

Course outline / objectives

The studio will focus in the Mar Mikhael area of downtown Beirut, Lebanon, explore and analyze its current urban conditions, speculate on the future dynamic of the area, and finally propose an architectural synthesis that comes to solve some of todays and possible future issues.

Mar Mikhael is following the rapid (yet ephemeral) change of Gemmayze, from a mainly local low income residents area, to a nightlife adventure land and ex patriots bee hive. Apparently Gemmayze followed the Hamra area in this urban gentrification whirlpool, a phenomenon in Beirut that seems to take place arbitrarily. Still, bars and restaurants in Gemmayze are now closing one after another, revealing a quite uncertain future for the area.

The scope of this studio is to design an “Urban Hub” in Mar Mikhael that will be able to sparkle viable growth. Students will have to answer the before mentioned problems, by their design strategy / proposal. They will have to propose a hybrid space: a mix of public and private spaces in a currently empty lot, that will be able to sustain today’ s gentrification of the area, while respecting the existing resident’s needs. Their final design will have to host diverse target groups that actually use it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This “Urban Hub” will have to promote sustainable, architecturally designed growth for the whole area, instead of the current arbitrary and ephemeral condition. The site is located between Madrid street, Pharoun street and the Coast highway.

Like Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael is characterised by a very dense and diverse city grid. Almost all of Beirut's building typologies can be found here. From dwellings dating back to the Ottoman Empire, to Bauhaus influenced concrete buildings of the 1920's and contemporary high end residential towers. Students are expected to analyze these typologies with drawings, photographs and sketches in their site analysis as well as the city fabric typologies.

At the same time, students will develop skills in using digital media as a design tool in the generation of a project, and not just as a representational tool at the end of the design process. Digital tools will have to be used in order to experiment with hybrid programmatic connections and transitions as well as tectonics and structure beyond Le Corbusier's DOM-INO model. Ambiance and atmosphere are also to be taken under consideration.

Readings extend from Rem Koolhaas's "Junkspace" and Reiser and Umemototo's "Atlas of novel tectonics" to Kevin Kelly's "Hive mind" in "Out of control".